An Adsorption-Compression Cold Thermal Energy Storage System (ACCESS)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Engineering
Abstract
The cooling sector currently consumes around 14% of the UK's electricity and emits around 10% of the UK's greenhouse gases. Global electricity demand for space cooling alone is forecast to triple by 2050. Moreover, as air temperature increases, the cooling demand increases, but a refrigerator's Coefficient of Performance decreases. This results in a time mismatch between a refrigerator's efficient operation and peak cooling demand over a day. Clearly, this problem will deteriorate over the coming decades. Indeed, research by UKERC recently reported that cooling sector will cause a 7 GW peak power demand to the grid by 2050 in the UK.
A solution is to employ cold thermal energy storage, which allows much more flexible refrigeration operation, thereby resulting in improved refrigeration efficiency and reduced peak power demand. Large-scale deployment of cold thermal energy storage could dramatically reduce this peak demand, mitigating its impact to the grid. Moreover, the UK curtails large amounts of wind power due to network constraints. For example, over 3.6TWh of wind energy in total was curtailed on 75% of days in 2020. Therefore, through flattening energy demand, cold thermal energy storage technology provides a means to use off-peak wind power to charge cold thermal energy storage for peak daytime cooling demand.
This project, based on the proposed novel adsorption-compression thermodynamic cycle, aims to develop an innovative hybrid technology for both refrigeration and cold thermal energy storage at sub-zero temperatures. The resultant cold thermal energy storage system is fully integrated within the refrigerator and potentially has significantly higher power density and energy density than current technologies, providing a disruptive new solution for large scale cold thermal energy storage. The developed technology can utilise off-peak or curtailed electricity to shave the peak power demand of large refrigeration plants and district cooling networks, and thus mitigates the impacts of the cooling sector on the grid and also reduces operational costs.
A solution is to employ cold thermal energy storage, which allows much more flexible refrigeration operation, thereby resulting in improved refrigeration efficiency and reduced peak power demand. Large-scale deployment of cold thermal energy storage could dramatically reduce this peak demand, mitigating its impact to the grid. Moreover, the UK curtails large amounts of wind power due to network constraints. For example, over 3.6TWh of wind energy in total was curtailed on 75% of days in 2020. Therefore, through flattening energy demand, cold thermal energy storage technology provides a means to use off-peak wind power to charge cold thermal energy storage for peak daytime cooling demand.
This project, based on the proposed novel adsorption-compression thermodynamic cycle, aims to develop an innovative hybrid technology for both refrigeration and cold thermal energy storage at sub-zero temperatures. The resultant cold thermal energy storage system is fully integrated within the refrigerator and potentially has significantly higher power density and energy density than current technologies, providing a disruptive new solution for large scale cold thermal energy storage. The developed technology can utilise off-peak or curtailed electricity to shave the peak power demand of large refrigeration plants and district cooling networks, and thus mitigates the impacts of the cooling sector on the grid and also reduces operational costs.
Organisations
- University of Glasgow (Lead Research Organisation)
- Soltropy Ltd, UK (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER (Collaboration)
- Star Refrigeration Ltd (Project Partner)
- UK-China (Guangdong) CCUS Centre (Project Partner)
- University of Edinburgh (Project Partner)
- Carbon Clean Solutions Limited (UK) (Project Partner)
- FeTu Ltd (Project Partner)
- Scottish Power Energy Networks (Project Partner)
Publications

Afify N
(2024)
Monte Carlo simulation of ammonia adsorption in high-silica zeolites for refrigeration applications
in Chemical Engineering Journal Advances


Li W
(2023)
Heat transfer enhancement of tubes in various shapes potentially applied to CO2 heat exchangers in refrigeration systems: Review and assessment
in International Journal of Thermofluids

Li W
(2024)
Heat transfer enhancement of supercritical carbon dioxide in eccentrical helical tubes
in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

Lu G
(2023)
Development of novel AMP-based absorbents for efficient CO2 capture with low energy consumption through modifying the electrostatic potential
in Chemical Engineering Journal

Lu G
(2025)
A novel non-aqueous tertiary amine system for low energy CO2 capture developed via molecular dynamics simulation
in Separation and Purification Technology

Ouderji Z
(2024)
A quasi-two-stage trans-critical CO2 heat pump with in-Cycle thermal storage for performance enhancement
in Applied Thermal Engineering

Shao S
(2024)
Photocatalytic conversion of lignin into aromatic monomers with adsorbents of radical species from water dissociation
in Chem Catalysis

Yu Z
(2023)
A unified approach for the thermodynamic comparison of heat pump cycles
in Communications Engineering
Related Projects
Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Award Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
EP/W027593/1 | 09/01/2023 | 31/12/2023 | £1,022,621 | ||
EP/W027593/2 | Transfer | EP/W027593/1 | 01/01/2024 | 08/01/2026 | £748,533 |
Description | ENSIGN: ENergy System dIGital twiN |
Amount | £4,340,128 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X025322/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2023 |
End | 08/2027 |
Description | Flexible Heat Pump Technology - from Concept to Applications |
Amount | £180,255 (GBP) |
Funding ID | IF\R1\231053 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2024 |
End | 12/2027 |
Description | collaboration with Dr Yasser Mahmoudi larimi |
Organisation | University of Manchester |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Academic collaboration in the area of energy storage. |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr Yasser Mahmoudi larimi has invited to participate a consortium for a large research EPSRC grant application. |
Impact | just started the collaboration |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | collaboration with Soltropy Ltd |
Organisation | Soltropy Ltd, UK |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | collaborate on the integration of solar thermal energy with air source heat pump |
Collaborator Contribution | provide solar thermal collectors |
Impact | still ongoing |
Start Year | 2023 |